Zirtual reviews

They laid off 400+ people (including me) with an email at 1:30am on Monday morning. All of our emails and systems were blocked, so we were unable to recover any information. Our insurance had not been paid for the month (even though it was taken out of our paychecks) so we were all without insurance, and if we'd gone to the doctor in the past 10 days, learned it would now be coming out of our own pockets. Leadership repeatedly lied about the state of the company, made selfish decisions that hurt their employees, and made a shady deal to revert back to independent contractors by laying off all their employees. As employees, there were some opportunities for growth within the company, but with the independent contractor set up, you are 100% better off just setting up your own business.

Once Zirtual switched over to "Zirtual 2.0" everything went downhill. Fast. The pay became abysmal and the flexibility disappeared. The company seemed to have little interest in the happiness of their clients or their employees. The entire system devolved into a chaotic atmosphere where the rules were constantly changing and and ZA roles and responsibilities were shifting on a weekly basis. They ask for feedback frequently, stating that it is how they "grow" as a company, but there is also this ever-present mentality that if you are not a Zirtual cheerleader you will just be making matters worse. None of the feedback can be provided anonymously, and therefore I find it hard to believe that all of the feedback they receive from employees is 100% honest. After a while it is clear that your feedback is worthless to those in charge. Behind the scenes ZAs talked frankly with one another about their confusion over policies, dissatisfaction with pay, and extreme levels of stress. You have no control over the clients you are matched with. While in most cases (in my experience) the clients are easy to work with, there are clients who are unrealistic, demanding, rude, egotistical, and petulant. Once you are matched with a tough client it is next to impossible to convince the company that the client is "abusive" enough for intervention. Even if someone does step in to help nothing is done to remedy or mend the situation, you are simply made to look inept in the eyes of that client, and the client is then handed off to another poor unsuspecting ZA. When you evaluate the other virtual assisting options out there, working for Zirtual just doesn't make sense. There are several similar companies out there that treat their employees with respect and compensate them fairly.